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Section :: software

- Format For Printing...

PagePlus X6

DTP review
Monday 19 March 2012.
 

http://www.serif.com/pageplus/
$99.99 / £68 (£81.69 inc VAT)

Serif is an odd company. Odd in a good way. The thing is, their software is so inexpensive that it’s tempting to dismiss the company as no more than a “pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” outfit: one of those low cost operations whose products promise much more than they deliver.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Serif produces great software. The latest release of their DTP package, PagePlus, is an excellent example of a program that is packed with high-end features but without a high-end price tag.

Here I have imported a PDF file and PagePlus X6 has created an editable publication

PagePlus can be used to create anything from simple one-page ‘flyers’ or posters to quite complex magazines and books. It lets you accurately position text blocks and graphics, flow text around the edges of images, add headers and footers, create indexes and tables of contents. It includes a mail-merge facility to import data from a variety of data sources such as Access or Excel, it lets you add tables and it even includes a dedicated logo designer for creating artistic headlines. It supplies a good number of ‘filters’ to apply effects such as shadows, glows, bevels and patterns and it includes a very decent image editing program called PhotoLab. In addition, PagePlus also has a range of built-in word processing tools such as a spelling checker, grammar checker, thesaurus and word counter.

It is pretty good at importing documents (in formats ranging from MS Word to Open Office) and images (in a large range of formats). It can even import PDF files and automatically translate them into fully editable publications – an incredibly useful feature!

A few years ago, I put an earlier release of PagePlus through its paces on a real-world project, by designing a book containing some of my old interviews with pop stars. That book had a complex layout so it was by no means a trivial project. On the whole, I found that PagePlus handled the challenge well and I was very satisfied with the end result. I generated a PDF version of that book which was required for printing it as a paperback. Today I important the PDF back into PagePlus X6 and was pleasantly surprised to find that it retained the layout and format of the original document, effectively transforming the PDF back into a native PagePlus publication.

New features in this release include integration with Amazon’s KindleGen program to simplify the publication of ePub format eBooks, an Asset Manager to organise graphics, text and layouts, Pantone colours, a Pre-flight checker (to locate potential problems when exporting, for example, a PDF or eBook) and a variety of other features. More information here: http://www.serif.com/pageplus/x6/new-features/

PagePlus X6 comes with a useful range of specialist tools including this dedicated logo designer

The plain truth of the matter is that, no matter how good PagePlus may be, very few design professionals will even be bothered to give it a try. There are already some ‘top end’ DTP packages such as Quark Xpress and Adobe In Design which have the professional market well and truly sewn up. At around £799 for Quark Xpress or £590 for In Design (not counting VAT or local taxes) you need to have a fairly generous budget to invest in one of those products. If you are on a tighter budget, PagePlus X6 is an excellent choice. It is a really powerful, easy to use DTP package which is of a much, much higher quality than its low price might suggest.

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